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RE: Deservedly overlooked. It managed to convey neither

Posted by jamesgarvin (A) on September 11, 2007 at 12:52:31

In Reply to: Deservedly overlooked. It managed to convey neither posted by tinear on September 10, 2007 at 13:39:57:

"the fear of the city nor the fierceness of the monster himself."

I do not think this was the point of the film. I think the point of the film, and the book from which it was drawn, was to show the investigation from the police perspective. The cartoonist wrote the book from which the film was made, and in an interview he stated that the film was very accurate relative to the police work. He also stated that the director did a lot of work on researching everything the police did, and everywhere they went, and all the evidence they accumulated.

The film could have focused on the fear of the city, and then you could complain that it did not show enough about the investigation. On the other hand, the film could have done both, been four hours, and then you could complain it was too long, and tried to do too much.

The film you are looking for is Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam", which was entirely about the hysteria surrounding the crimes. It is not a better, or worse, film because it was about the hysteria rather than the investigation. Simply a different film.

"By making a "star" out of the reporter, the film mangled itself, irremediably."

Other films have covered the same subject matter. This is probably the first time that you learned there was a cartoonist, not a reporter, who became obscessed about the killer, to such an extent that he was willing to sacrifice his marriage and his career to find the killer. The film likely provided you information you did not have before seeing it, and so it is safe to say that the film added to your knowledge base, I presume a good thing. And let's not forget that this cartoonist's work work led to a pretty good affirmation that the police originally had the right guy. Who else should have been the "star."

"Downey was miscast: he's made a career out of being ironical: he's not very believable as a straight guy doing a straight job, certainly not in this one, anyway."

"Ironical?" In any event, I must again disagree here. He is a crime reporter, and apparently has demons. Whether those demons caused him to become a crime reporter rather than a criminal, or him being a crime reporter caused the demons, who knows. I suspect that his deterioration into substance abuse hell was because he could not solve the crime, or even get a handle on who it was, when he would strike, etc. He was hardly a straight guy. And, to top it all off, the newly hired cartoonist seems to have more insightful answers. If anyone can play a depressed substance abuser, it is Downey.

"A lack of suspense in a film about Zodiac?"

There is no suspense, because we all know what happened, and an idea, maybe not beyond a reasonable doubt, but a pretty good idea nevertheless who done it.

If you take the film strictly as a police procedural, it was a very good film. If you were looking for "suspense", "art", or anything else, then you watched the wrong film. Why blame the film and its makers because you were looking for something they never intended to deliver? Do you yell at the hardware store attendant because they do not carry Beluga caviar? Because the author of the book, and subsequently the film makers decided upon a different focus, does not make it a bad film.

Edits: 09/11/07 09/11/07

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